Congress, NCP to fight Maharashtra assembly polls together

Congress and NCP will fight the Assembly polls in Maharashtra together and modalities on seat sharing will be finalised in the next 8-10 days, NCP leader Sharad Pawar announced on Wednesday after a meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi to discuss the alliance.

With Assembly elections in Maharashtra just a few months away, the meeting assumes significance as leaders of the two ruling coalition partners in the state have been making conflicting claims and demands on seat-sharing with some of them even making a pitch for going it alone.

"Congress and NCP will fight together in Maharashtra. I had a meeting with Congress President on Wednesday morning," Pawar said.

The Maratha strongman told PTI that leaders from both the parties in the state will meet and finalise the seat-sharing agreement in the next 8-10 days. Amid claims and counter-claims over the number of seats to be contested, the NCP chief had said sometime back that he and Sonia alone would decide on the issue.

With the severe drubbing of the Congress in Lok Sabha polls, the NCP is perceived to be in an aggressive mode. The state NCP leaders have been demanding that the parties contest the 288 seats on a 50:50 basis.

In the previous assembly elections, NCP had contested 114 seats after its not so good performance in 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Now many NCP leaders insist the party use the same formula in the seat-sharing.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Congress secured just two while NCP won 4 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. The two parties are in coalition in the state since 1999.